(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Susan Collins (R-ME), Chris Coons (D-DE) and Jack Reed (D-RI) reintroduced bipartisan legislation to encourage state-driven energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives that reduce energy costs for low-income households, spur private sector energy innovation and improve emergency planning and response. The Investing in State Energy Act would prevent undue delay in distributing grants through the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) and the State Energy Program (SEP) to state agencies and local partners that implement energy initiatives.
Just last month, Shaheen led a bipartisan letter with Senators Collins, Coons, Reed, Murkowski and Cantwell to Secretary of Energy Rick Perry regarding delayed guidance and documentation for the WAP. Their letter was in response to the Department of Energy (DOE) missing an important deadline to deliver information concerning state allocations to WAP grantees. Because of the Senators’ efforts, this guidance was later released to allow states to plan for the upcoming year.
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An EPFL researcher has developed a system based on fuel cells to reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption of cruise ships, which are increasingly popular among vacation goers around the world.
Spending a few weeks sailing the seas on a luxury liner is an idea that appeals to a growing number of people, particularly in Asian countries. But cruise ships do not just sail from port to port: as veritable floating hotels accommodating several hundred passengers, they use a great deal of energy for heating, electricity, air conditioning and various other aspects of life on board. To make them more environmentally friendly, Francesco Baldi, a researcher in EPFL’s Industrial Process and Energy Systems Engineering Group (IPESE), has come up with a novel solution.
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World-famous organizing expert Marie Kondo and her new Netflix show “Tidying Up” have inspired many to declutter their homes and lives. But tidying up doesn’t just apply to your clothes and belongings. While Kondo provides advice on straightening out your room, here are some tips on how to tidy up your energy use:
- Change out your lightbulbs. LED lights use at least 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs, and last 25 times longer! If you’ve still got incandescent bulbs in your home, it’s time to do as Marie would: thank them for their service and let them go.
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Launched in 2004, Great Energy Efficiency Day (GEED) has become a “must attend” public discussion on the need for, and benefits of, energy efficiency. Each year the event draws stakeholders from business, industry, government and academia to offer their unique industry perspectives.
Directly following GEED, they’ll host the Unsung Hero Awards Reception where they’ll honor the public servants working hard behind the scenes to advance energy efficiency. Stay tuned for more information and a full agenda. Contact MaryAnne Tatum for any questions.
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ACEEE has reviewed exemplary customer-funded electric and natural gas utility programs every five years since 2003. For this edition of the report, they solicited nominations nationally and analyzed them in collaboration with an independent expert advisory panel. They ultimately selected 53 models worthy of emulation in 14 categories. A two-page profile of each exemplary program includes a program-at-a-glance table, features and accomplishments, lessons learned, and a table of performance data.
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The long search for a new judge on the State Corporation Commission ended with the surprise election on Wednesday of a Republican former judge whose candidacy started a partisan battle over public transparency and gender in a critical election year.
Republican majorities in both chambers of the General Assembly elected former Judge Patricia West — a conservative Regent University official and former key aide to Gov. George Allen and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli — to fill the SCC post vacated by the retirement of Judge Jimmy Dimitri at the end of February.
West, 57, will become the third judge on an independent commission established in the Virginia Constitution to oversee public utilities, banks and insurance companies. The SCC is now under increasing pressure from the General Assembly to carry out its priorities for regulating electric utilities and expanding use of renewable energy.
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Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Senator Schumer, and Leader McCarthy:
We the undersigned, on behalf of a coalition of energy businesses, trade associations, researchers, energy officials, and advocacy organizations, respectfully urge you to ensure that any infrastructure proposals considered by the 116th Congress include energy efficiency provisions that will maximize the investments made by taxpayers, reduce long-term operations and maintenance costs, and improve overall U.S. energy productivity.
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A program to help finance green energy for commercial buildings is nearing approval from the Board of Supervisors, pending an attorney general’s opinion expected next month.
The Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy Program allows building owners to take out loans secured by a voluntary lien against their property to finance clean energy projects, such as installing solar panels on the roofs of buildings. The program is intended to provide more financing for clean energy projects, which typically take longer to pay for themselves than the typical commercial real estate loan that owners might use. While commercial real estate loans may be paid off over five to 10 years, Louduon’s PACE loans will have 30-year terms.
Those loans are made by private lenders, administered by a third party, and backed by a special lien against the property, which carries with the property if it is sold. Supervisors are waiting for an opinion from Attorney General Mark Herring on whether the county may legally delegate the billing, collection and enforcement of those loans to a third party before moving ahead.
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Have you ever seen one of those big yellow cards on refrigerators, washing machines and other new appliances? These government-mandated notices indicate about how much energy the average U.S. consumer will save by replacing their older model at home with one of these shiny new things.
Trouble is, different people use their appliances very differently — so most of us aren’t average consumers.
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Strategic energy management (SEM) programs are expanding beyond the industrial sector to commercial and institutional customers. These programs and data management technologies are two of the biggest opportunities to reduce energy use at large facilities. Not only do they save energy and decrease carbon emissions, they also help utilities build long-term relationships with clients and introduce them to additional efficiency programs.
In a new report, released today, ACEEE analyzed 26 programs in the United States and Canada to evaluate how they are merging these opportunities to maximize energy savings. Our report finds that such programs help organizations identify effective capital projects as well as operations and maintenance actions. It explores the potential for more programs and lays the foundation for accelerating their adoption across North America.
But what exactly do SEM programs do? They give organizations structure and methodology to discover opportunities, implement projects, and maintain practices that save energy. Energy management information systems (EMIS) help customers increase energy savings by automating data collection, integrating analysis of energy and manufacturing process information, thereby enabling data-driven process control. Integrating EMIS into SEM programs can boost the effectiveness of both approaches and ensure the persistence of energy savings by embedding standard practices in facilities.
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